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by Closing the Gap Clearinghouse

Report

Year

2012

City

Canberra

Institution

Closing the Gap Clearinghouse

Date

January 2012

Report number

Closing the Gap Clearinghouse resource sheet no. 9

Abstract

This report assesses the evidence regarding the effectiveness of physical activity and nutrition intervention programs in reducing the incidence of chronic diseases in Indigenous communities. The report also describes the burden of lifestyle-related chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease) affecting Indigenous Australians and assesses strategies that have the potential to be affective.

The authors conclude from the evidence that healthy lifestyle programs can help to combat lifestyle-related chronic diseases. In particular, the programs that were found to be most effective were community-based projects that were initiated and managed by the communities in which they were run. Individual, family and group-based Indigenous healthy lifestyle projects were found to have positive effects in the short term (up to two years). It is not known whether these effects are sustained in the long term as few programs have both the resources and impetus to continue long term.